News blog + Roma, Gypsies and Travellers | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/news/blog+world/roma-gypsies-and-travellers
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Dale Farm evictions - Thursday 20 Octoberhttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/oct/20/dale-farm-evictions-live
Protesters remain locked to vehicles and concrete as bailiffs prepare to begin clearance of illegal Traveller site in Essex<p><span class="timestamp">3.07pm:</span> A last post from Alexandra Topping:</p><p>The peaceful walk out looks increasingly unlikely as residents are insisting they want their eviction notices, after the police entered the site.</p><p>The council representatives came onto the site to issue notices after they were told that there would be a peaceful walkout at 3pm. Now there is a farcical situation as riot police tramp around the site accompanying the council officials. They are being followed by everyone left on the site chanting, &quot;All coppers are bastards.&quot;</p><p>There is a sense that many of these people would not have been here in an hour's time and the theatre of this could have been avoided.</p><p>I have just spoken to Kathleen McCarthy who have confirmed that Travellers and protesters will leave the Dale Farm site, united at 3pm.</p><p>Quite a beautiful and sad moment here and Travellers finally give up the fight.</p><p>Mary Mcarthy: &quot;We're leaving on the road to nowhere&quot;. #DaleFarm Residents have asked their supporters to leave, and so will they.</p><p>Grateful for their supporters help, but fearful of further violence the residents have decided to call an end to the stand-off. #DaleFarm</p><p>Travellers and protesters have been having a meeting. Kathleen McCarthy has just said to them that they are all going to walk out together.</p><p>The new fight seems to be controlling the 'new arrivals' who are disguising themselves as peaceful protesters. #DaleFarm</p><p>Confirmation from a female resident who saw some of the new 'supporters' making small molotov cocktails in the night. #DaleFarm</p><p>If the police advance: the barrage of missiles with begin.Travellers themselves seem to be unable to control the new supporters. #DaleFarm</p><p>Tony Ball doesn't seem to realise that we searched for sites but the list, just like the housing list, is very long. I'm trying to get my caravan out with my 16-year-old girl inside and I can't.</p><p>If they and when they leave the site at Dale Farm it is up to them to move to sites they have permission to be on.</p><p>I personally wouldn't use the word victory. I don't see this as a victory.</p><p>One comes down, another goes up. Protesters building a new scaffold tower at other end of #DaleFarm</p><p>Much of the barricade is down now, but a large Russian truck still stands in the way.</p><p>Beside me is a woman with long dreadlocks called Sharon on the phone to the RAC in a bid to get it going again.</p><p>That machine is a metal 360 excavator with cutting jaws apparently. It's snapping scaffolding like twiglets #dalefarm</p><p>The cutting machine is making short work of the scaffolding. Won't be long now until the main gates are open. </p><p>Many of the remaining protesters, just a handful now, are sat on the roof of a nearby chalet.</p><p>I've been speaking to the two final protesters who are currently in the process of being removed from the final barrier.</p><p>Once they managed to remove the protesters standing on the scaffolding late yesterday afternoon, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the barricades began coming down.</p><p>It's a very complicated situation here. The (legal) ruling the Travellers received after the initial eviction was stopped ruled that all the fences and gates, a lot of the hardstanding, and some legal pitches with chalets on, can stay. It's going to be a long, drawn out affair as bailiffs go around each pitch and try and establish what can be removed and what can't be removed.</p><p>Mostly things are calm. For the Travellers, there's just a sense of despondency.</p><p>Police have advanced further, now going to cut out final two protesters #dalefarm</p><p>Can you clarify how many people were tazered yesterday? - BBC revised this to one, Guardian still says two.</p><p>Taser was used during an isolated incident on one man by officers who were faced with a serious level of violence.</p><p>Officers reacted and used their personal protective equipment to prevent further attack. The man then disappeared in to the crowd.</p><p>Diesel generators ran out during the night at #DaleFarm. Many elderly spent most of the night without any heat.</p><p>Just arrived at #DaleFarm A very cold and distressed young woman is still concreted into a small make-shift barricade.</p><p>I hope that there are no repeats of yesterday's scenes of premeditated violence and disorder from the protestors on the site, and that we can get on with the job of upholding the law, and clearing the site in a safe, professional and dignified way. </p><p>Last night was pretty uncomfortable but it is worth it. We may just be delaying the inevitable but if we don't stand up to this, nobody will. I'm prepared to stay as long as I can.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/oct/20/dale-farm-evictions-live">Continue reading...</a>Dale FarmUK newsSocietyHousingProtestRoma, Gypsies and TravellersLawHuman rightsCommunitiesEssexThu, 20 Oct 2011 14:07:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/oct/20/dale-farm-evictions-liveguardian.co.ukguardian.co.ukguardian.co.ukguardian.co.ukPhotograph: Leon Neal/AFPPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesDale Farm activists move a caravan to a safer spot during evictions from the Travellers' camp. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesActivists move a caravan to a safer spot during evictions from Dale Farm travellers camp Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPeter Walker2011-10-20T14:07:00ZDale Farm evictions - Wednesday 19 October 2011http://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/oct/19/dale-farm-evictions-live
• Violent clashes as Dale Farm eviction begins <br />• Caravan on fire as at least 50 officers enter site<br />• Reports of police baton and Taser use as protesters resist<br />• 23 people arrested for offences including violent disorder<br />• Eviction could cost £18m<p><span class="timestamp">7.09am:</span> Residents of Dale Farm, the UK's largest Travellers' site, are preparing to resist an expected attempt to evict them today after they were refused permission on Monday to appeal against a high court ruling allowing Basildon council to clear the site.</p><p>Supporters have also been arriving at the site in Essex, where three people were said to be preparing to chain themselves to the gate by their necks, and two cars and a former Russian military vehicle have been moved into place as obstacles.</p><p>The time for talking is over. We have given the Travellers every chance to leave peacefully and they have not taken it. Now our job is to clear the site in a safe and humane manner.</p><p>It is quite clear to me that the majority of the public want us to do that.<br />My biggest fear is that somebody - be it a bailiff, a police officer, a Traveller or a supporter - gets hurt.</p><p>There will be a number of families on the roadside if your lordship rules against us today.</p><p>We are staying until we are forced from our land because we have nowhere else to go. Everyone we know is here on Dale Farm, all our families and friends. Who else is there to turn to … They are tearing apart our community, leaving us to bring up our kids on the roadside.</p><p>Early this morning riot police and bailiffs stormed the Dale Farm community in a dawn raid. Police violated the court order and used sledgehammers to smash through the walls of a fully legal plot on the site in order to force entry. Human rights observers reported several injuries of residents and supporters from police action as they forced their way onto site. Police are using Tasers on those protesting the eviction.</p><p>Residents and supporters remain inside the site, many locked on to blockades and caravans together in order to resist the eviction. Police breached the perimeter to initiate the eviction.</p><p>The memory of Dale Farm will weigh heavily on Britain for generations- we are being dragged out of the only homes we have in this world. Our entire community is being ripped apart by Basildon Council and the politicians in government.</p><p>This is being led by the police, there is no sign of bailiffs.</p><p>They're rough and there is no reasoning with them.</p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/fergalkeane47/status/126550181712904192">Large clouds of black smoke from inside camp. Prob barricade on fire. Protestor arrested+carried past us</a></p><p>There's a stand-off at the gate where a lot of supporters are climbed up the scaffolding surrounded by riot police who have been using batons and shields and Tasers against protesters. </p><p>Further away, there's a small fire that was a bit bigger earlier. I think it was [lit] to try to keep the police back. </p><p>The pre-meditated and organised scenes of violence that we have already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with iron bars and setting fire to a caravan are shocking.</p><p>These are utterly disgraceful scenes and demonstrate the fact some so-called supporters were always intent on violence.</p><p>Police [have] broken barricade to enter the site. Police everywhere. Chopper overhead. Police at got through back of site and now attempting to demolish barricades.&quot;</p><p>When the police breached the perimeter fence at the back of the farm, they deployed Tasers several times and I think two protesters were injured. </p><p>At the moment, it's pretty much a stalemate. The police are standing around and don't seem to be on alert. We're waiting to see what moves they make. </p><p>Officers have this morning entered the Dale Farm site following intelligence which informed the commanders that anyone entering the site was likely to come up against violence and a serious breach of the peace would occur.</p><p>Intelligence received indicated protesters had stockpiled various items with the intent of using these against bailiffs and police.</p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/LexyTopping/status/126564245293899777">Carnage here. Smell of burning. Protesters in boiler suits and balaclavas adding fuel to the fire</a></p><p>The only premeditated violence has come from the police — they knew exactly what they were doing when they started beating and Tasering people. This is not how a community should be treated by its own council. It's illegal for us to travel, but illegal for us to settle down here. We're getting hit by the police but we've got nowhere else to go.</p><p>Carnage here at Dale Farm. After an early morning raid which saw around 150 riot police enter the site through a back field, there is now a stand off.</p><p>Riot police are gathered, helmets on, shields up, by the barricaded gates. Around 20 or so protesters are by the gates, the same number on the scaffolding.</p><p>Once it's clear, which will not obviously be today [because] it could be a long operation, we will take the road access out and return it to green belt land. Obviously people have got to come out before we start any digging but actually returning the land, clearing it, could take six weeks.</p><p>We've always said this won't be done in a day. It's got to be done safely. Protesters' actions have compromised that.</p><p><a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmhaff/uc646-i/uc64601.htm">We again support the ACPO guidance, which is very clear that Tasers should not be used in terms of a crowd control measure in public order scenarios.</a></p><p>As we witness the sad and difficult eviction of the travelling community from Dale Farm, let us pray that it happens peacefully and that no one is hurt or injured.</p><p>But let us also remember that this eviction does not solve the problem but moves it somewhere else. </p><p>At present, there seems to be more or less a stalemate between protesters and bailiffs and the police who are figuring out what to do next</p><p>There's a real sense of despondency on behalf of the Travellers … They never thought it would come to this.</p><p><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/LexyTopping/status/126595784312504320">Police now talking to protesters on barricade. More bailiffs with crowbars and wirecutters approaching</a></p><p>Just to confirm, Dale Farm resident in hospital with spinal injuries from police baton. In a lot of pain and can't move legs. </p><p>Solicitors are seeking an emergency injunction. Climbing teams removing residents and supporters from front tower.</p><p>It's unfortunate that some protesters have resorted to violence. The police were right to take control of the site's clearance.</p><p>The protesters were there at the request of the travellers and I urge the travellers now to ask the protesters to leave peacefully and lead by example and leave themselves.</p><p>When I became a councillor, it was never in my mind and never did I want to preside over an operation where we saw riot police on the streets of Basildon.</p><p>But I am absolutely clear that after 10 years of negotiation to try and find a peaceful solution to this that actually what we're doing is the right thing.</p><p><br />I now call upon the Travellers to ask the protesters to stand down so that the bailiffs can carry on with their lawful work of clearing the site.</p><p>I am still hopeful, and actually determined, that when it comes to site clearance of the Travellers - and we know what we can do on certain sites - that this will be carried out in a safe and as dignified a manner as possible.</p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/pipogypopotamus/status/126611906667614209/photo/1">Can't help thinking that tower of scaffolding would make a good game of human Kerplunk</a></p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/cllrthomgoddard/status/126615910478913536">Dear All, I am sorry my Tweet was mis-construed. Of course I do not want anyone hurt at #dalefarm and hope the situation ends peacefully.</a></p><p>You can't have one law for the travelling community and one law for the settled community. We operate in a democracy where we need to abide by the law. Everybody knows you can't just occupy a piece of greenbelt land, rip off the turf and build what you want on it. You have to have planning permission.</p><p><br />Serious violence was offered to a pair of officers in particular. Their response was to protect themselves. They carry personal protective equipment which includes the Taser and they just naturally reacted as they are trained individuals to operate that device.</p><p><br />More heavy lifting gear moving toward gantry. Cafe set up with free tea, coffee, bacon rolls for police, firemen and media — strategically upwind of gantry to tempt protesters down with food aromas?</p><p>It is right that in a liberal and democratic society the State has a monopoly in the use of coercive force against citizens, but this monopoly has to be balanced with accountability and transparency. </p><p>Those who rush to rubbish anyone questioning the police, or are quickly dismissive of those complaining of the use of force, are in fact not helping serving officers. They are instead entrenching a needless lack of effective communication. </p><p>Are we seeing the creeping normalisation of the Taser for general crowd control?</p><p>Tactical decisions concerning necessary and proportionate use of force are a matter for the operational commander who will deploy tactics appropriate to the specific circumstances.</p><p>Tasers are used by trained officers facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they will need to use force to protect the public, themselves or the subjects.&quot;</p><p>The police brutality seen at Dale Farm today is not a one-off, but part of a long-running criminalisation of Traveller communities and culture. Until 1994, all local councils had been required to offer a designated amount of Traveller pitches in their area. The Conservative government repealed this, leaving at least 5,000 families without a legal home.</p><p>Today, councils are 20,000 pitches short of their legal duties, and even these unenforced responsibilities will be removed by the localism bill. These guidelines, like the Travellers they're designed for, have simply been ignored, the result being 18% of Gypsies and Travellers were homeless in 2003 compared with 0.6% of the UK population. This is why Dale Farm residents are engaging in civil disobedience to resist the eviction – the alternative is homelessness.</p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jonbcollins/status/126660611663863808">Not for me to defend the article. But I think it is always legitimate to ask whether the use of Tasers is appropriate.</a></p><p><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/ChSuptKennedy/status/126666424553971712">MT - @jonbcollins. Thought provoker - Should the #police be more accepting of criticism and explain more proactively? </a></p><p>Some commentators and politicians have portrayed the enforcement action by Basildon council at Dale Farm as a site clearance, and not a forced eviction. This is misleading and inaccurate.</p><p>What is in its early stages at Dale Farm is a forced eviction which will leave several families homeless. The families being evicted have been failed by the Council at every turn; in inadequate consultation, insufficient negotiation and in the woeful failure to offer culturally adequate alternative accommodation, to which they are entitled.</p><p>He decided that he and his group look tough and get political credit by doing these sorts of things they've been doing today. I think they [the council] did a deal with Eric Pickles, who's a neighbouring MP, to get government support for this. And so over several weeks their only interest has been a forced eviction and a confrontation.</p><p>I offered to mediate, the Bishop of Chelmsford offered to mediate, the UN Commission for Human Rights – at my request – offered to mediate, and Basildon council refused all of those offers – and they should be held accountable. (...) This day should never have happened.</p><p><br />Tonight police had secured the area and removed protesters from a 40ft high scaffolding tower which had been erected at main gate to the site. It is being dismantled which officials hope should allow access for the bailiffs tomorrow to begin removing the plots.</p><p>But sporadic clashes between police and protesters were continuing tonight.</p><p>I think we have seen from the level of violence put up by the protesters this morning that it was absolutely right that the police led the operation.</p><p>It's unfortunate that some protesters have resorted to violence. The police were right to take control of the site's clearance.</p><p>The protesters were there at the request of the travellers and I urge the travellers now to ask the protesters to leave peacefully and lead by example and leave themselves.</p><p>The spokesman said the East of England MEP, who has publicly backed those facing eviction, had been warned both verbally and in writing that he could not enter the site for security reasons and was told he could visit tomorrow.</p><p>He said: &quot;We are extremely disappointed that he chose to completely ignore our communications and tricked his way into the compound, which was a security breach.</p><p>Today has been a shocking day in which serious events affecting the lives and rights of the people of Basildon have been at stake, and it is utterly reprehensible that the council has sought to stifle free and fair debate about what's happening.</p><p>I came here with a message for all to respect the law and to condemn violence against the police, so surely the council should have wanted a responsible elected local politician to have used my influence accordingly?&quot;</p><p>Few councils are unaffected by the question of where their local Traveller populations should live, and events in Basildon will have reminded them how volatile and intense the politics of Traveller sites can be.</p><p><br />The police said they had been deployed to protect public order and members of the public, including those on the site, and that their use of Tasers was in accordance with official guidance and authorised by those in charge of the operation.</p><p>Among the Travellers there was a sense of helplessness. Several sick residents, including Cornelius Sheridan, who had asked to be able to die on his plot, had been stretchered from the site by police medics. Those that remained sat in caravans pulled onto legal plots and watched the news unfold on TV.</p><p>The scenes from Dale Farm yesterday morning were stomach-churning. The vivid images that will stay in the mind were of young mothers fleeing with babies in their arms, of old ladies frightened faces lit by blazing fires. Violence of this kind demands explanation. On the face of it, the case is entirely straightforward. The Travellers have broken planning laws by setting up, albeit on land they owned, homes for which they do not have planning permission. Basildon council's right to send in the bailiffs has been exhaustively contested in the courts.</p><p>Although the strength of yesterday's police response, which included the first ever use of tasers in crowd control, will raise difficult questions, the proportionate use of force was sanctioned in law: and it should be remembered that the sympathisers with the Travellers, if not the Travellers themselves, were ready to use force too. There is almost nothing good to be said for the long and miserable saga that has culminated in the eviction of 80 families from their homes – except that now it has reached its wretched climax, it is essential to stop it happening again.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/oct/19/dale-farm-evictions-live">Continue reading...</a>UK newsDale FarmWorld newsSocietyHousingProtestRoma, Gypsies and TravellersLawHuman rightsCommunitiesWed, 19 Oct 2011 23:14:44 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/oct/19/dale-farm-evictions-liveOli Scarff/Getty ImagesA resident moves a figure of the Virgin Mary from Dale Farm travellers camp Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty ImagesCarl Court/AFP/Getty ImagesProtesters gather on scaffold tower as riot police prepare to evict the Dale Farm Travellers' camp Photograph: Carl Court/AFP/Getty ImagesPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPolice use Tasers as they break through a barricade during evictions from the Dale Farm travellers camp. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesDale Farm evictions begin this morning. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesA slogan is painted on a hut at Dale Farm travellers camp Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesSam Jones and David Batty2011-10-19T23:14:44ZDale Farm evictions live – Monday 19 September 2011http://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-live
• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-live?commentpage=2#start-of-comments#block-52">Residents win last-gasp injunction</a><br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-live#block-30">Government blocks UN from aiding negotiations</a> <br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/18/dale-farm-travellers-eviction-protest-tracy-mcveigh">Battle lines drawn as supporters arrive from around the country</a> to stop bailiffs<br />• <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-live#block-36">Council says "time for talking is almost over</a>"<p><span class="timestamp">7.55am:</span> Welcome to this live blog following the eviction of hundreds of Travellers from Dale Farm, Essex. The battle between the local council and the Travellers which has been going on for a decade now has now culminated in eviction of half the site. Bailiffs have been called in for this morning and will be supported by police. </p><p>A little background to this is that the entire site is actually owned by the community itself and sits on a former scrap metal works. However planning permission for the chalet style home and other dwellings has only been granted for about half the site. It is the other half of the site which faces eviction today after <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/05/dale-farm-travellers-eviction-date ">Basildon council set an eviction date earlier this month</a>. </p><p>It is a beautiful, if chilly morning here at Dale Farm. Hundreds of press and photographers at the barricade to the site. </p><p>It's a 20ft structure of scaffolding, gates, wooden boards and palates, barbed wire and tyres- all decorated with pictures of the children who live here, hand painted posters and slogans offering support. </p><p>There are an estimated 200 people on site, with around 100-120 of those thought to be protesters.</p><p>Strange scenes here. Protesters in boiler suits and face masks are watching two 20-something protesters who are locking themselves to a burnt out car and each other. Dogs keep attacking each other against the backdrop of huge colour photographs of Traveller children.</p><p>We haven't got somewhere else to go. And we have to show people that we are human beings and that we do really need somewhere to go. If we had somewhere to go we wouldn't be humiliating ourselves like this. </p><p>All we're asking for is the council to build us a site and we will willingly give them our land that we bought and paid for. We will give that to them and they just have to build us a site where we can go in and get our children to school and give them an education and get the very sick look after. </p><p>It's a sad day. I'd much rather we hadn't come to where we are today but the bailiffs will approach the site at the right time in a calm manner and they will request permission to enter the site and then depending on the response they get, then dictates how the operation goes from there ...</p><p>I'm not blind to the humanitarian issue here. What I am buoyed about here is that in the last few days a significant amount of Travellers on the illegal site have moved off and have moved on to the legal site; don't forget there is a legal site next door. And what I understand is that the protesters now outnumber the Travellers on site at this moment. </p><p>If you are human beings this could still be stopped, I would plead and beg to stop this.</p><p>We'll go anywhere, you can have this scrapyard, we don't want it, we just want somewhere to go.</p><p>Where do you belong? Where are you from? Where is home? As the residents of Dale Farm have found, such questions are deeply political.</p><p>Yet politicians can have a tin ear to the passions that place provokes. In the Dale Farm case, one councillor was quoted as saying that they could move to some free pitches in St Helens, several hundred miles away in the north-west. Try saying that to the outraged residents of Buckinghamshire running a vigorous campaign against the high speed rail link: you can always move.</p><p>Wearing a blue boiler suit and resting on an old sofa cushion she said protesters had helped with paperwork and campaigning but were now &quot;showing physical support and physical solidarity&quot;.</p><p>She said: &quot;400 people are being made homeless, what are we doing throwing these people into destitution , do we want more poverty in this country.</p><p>The group entirely respects the right of the council to uphold the integrity of planning legislation. That's without question. </p><p>But what we've asked is the council to suspend the eviction and get around the table, not only with the Travellers but also the United Nations commissions that have looked at this whole thing, and the human rights commission in the UK to try and find a long term solution.</p><p>@SamStone, Actually the land is theirs, and they did pay for it. The problem is that there was no planning permission for the land.</p><p>There are plenty of building plots for sale in Essex with planning permission if you look online. </p><p>As for this being Greenbelt, that's highly disingenuous, as the Guardian's article on Saturday showed (the previous owner has stated that the Council itself laid the hardcore for the original scrapyard), and rumour has it the Council plans to site a rubbish incinerator there after the eviction.</p><p>Basildon council are understood to be in 11th-hour talks with Travellers.</p><p>A council spokesman said fresh talks, which he said broke down over the weekend, were &quot;likely&quot;. </p><p>The trouble is that there's usually two sides to any story, including this one. I worry when the version I hear on the BBC or sometimes read in the Guardian or Observer is so much at odds with the account I read in the Daily Mail and elsewhere.</p><p> As an estimated 200 protesters and Travellers block the site's entrance at Dale Farm it emerged that the government has refused offers of help from the high commissioner for human rights in Brussels. </p><p>Residents are voicing a plea for resolution, and have asked Basildon Council to negotiate with them in order to find a way to avoid a forced eviction. </p><p>Local Bishops as well as the United Nations have offered to mediate between the Dale Farm community and the Council. </p><p>The residents have been increasingly distressed at the lack of information about what time the eviction is due to start. The mixed messages continue as the Council discusses with the press that they were considering negotiations while saying the eviction is going ahead.</p><p>Staff working with Gypsy and Traveller children have been made aware of an increase in racist incidents at schools in the region since the start of term.</p><p>Some Gypsy and Traveller families are reporting that they are not sending their children to school because of an increase in bullying and schools have also alerted support workers to an increase in incidents in the playground.</p><p> An 11th-hour meeting that was being planned with Travellers was cancelled after residents said they wanted the issue of where they would go on the table. They also wanted to discuss delaying the eviction until the 22 November when a planning appeal on a Basildon site at Church Road is due to be heard.</p><p><br />It's all fairly quiet. The residents are at the front gate. There is reggae music and the sun is out. The helicopter is not flying but no one knows quite what is going to happen next. </p><p>Elderly traveller Mary Flynn is &quot;too frail&quot; to be evicted from the UK's biggest illegal travellers' site, an appeal judge was told today. </p><p>Mrs Flynn, 72, suffers breathing problems and uses an electric nebuliser and has been a crucial protagonist in the bid to stop the clearance. </p><p>Tony Ball said Basildon already had 113 authorised pitches and could &quot;absolutely not&quot; accommodate the 52 pitches that will be forced to leave Dale Farm.</p><p>He said other areas would have to accommodate the Travellers. &quot;It's a matter for them but I struggle to see how any local authority can say they don't need to make sites available.&quot;</p><p>Given at least 50 children amongst the families present, the site should be a playground not a battleground, and the first priority must be that no one on any side is harmed in today's action.<br /> <br />I do regret that if the same energy and resources had been put into finding alternative legal sites as has been put in today's military-style exercise, then I am sure an acceptable compromise would have been found long before now.<br /> <br />The financial cost to local taxpayers cannot be justified, and I am afraid the real human cost remains to be seen.<br /> <br />What is clear is that all the international organisations who warned in advance that a forced eviction would breach fundamental rights, will not remain silent now their warnings have been ignored.<br /> <br />All responsible for today's action must and will be held to account for what they have done. </p><p>There is a legal judgment that allows Basildon council to restore this land back to the green belt. We have been facilitating a peaceful protest until now. But I and the council have some major health and safety concerns which I want to discuss with you.</p><p>I'm concerned for your wellbeing and the wellbeing of the council agents who have been tasked to restore the land. In the interests of health and safety, is there anything I can say or do to remove yourselves in an orderly manner. </p><p>&quot;Basildon council hear us say! Dale Farm is here to stay!&quot;- activists and residents heard chanting #DaleFarm</p><p>&quot;If it comes to it we will use brute force,&quot; he said. &quot;We've had enough of being treated like rats and dogs.&quot; </p><p>As a local I can tell you all that the opinion of the majority in the area is that they should not be there. Local people have been fighting for this for 10 years. Yes they own the land but it has no permission to build.</p><p>If you want land in Essex that can be built on, you pay more for it. Why should any part of our community buy cheap land and then flout the planning laws?</p><p>Vaillant, I'm with you.... I am also born and bred Essex, I still live not too far from Crays Hill, and I too am ashamed to be an Essex boy today. Not only because of the actions of the council / police / bailiffs, but also because of some of the racist and/or hateful comments I've heard from some of my fellow Essex people (just check out the comments forums on my local newspaper's website (the Basildon Evening Echo) if you want a taster.</p><p>I grew up in Crays Hill and attended the local school, which now has the 2nd worst attendance record in the UK and the worst sats results. Out of the 110 pupils, 107 of them are 'travellers'. Many of them too are also abusive, antisocial, messy and once set a car on fire and pelted the firemen when they arrived. There has been a shooting murder on the site because of traveller rivalry. I do wish their supporters would consider the lives of the local residents. Many Crays Hill residents are afraid to speak out because of retribution; not because they support the travellers. Also there are many more sites they can live on in the Basildon area, it's on the council's website, but they are just ungrateful and what to cause trouble.</p><p><br />Having regard to the fact there is no fixed date for starting these - but they are imminent - I do not see that any serious injustice will be caused if the actual implementation of any measures will not take place before the end of this week.</p><p>There were cheers inside the site as residents and supporters were told the news. </p><p>Resident Mary Slattery said: &quot;We are delighted. Every day is a bonus. We've got one last chance and we're not going to give up - this gives us so much hope.&quot;</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-live">Continue reading...</a>Dale FarmUK newsProtestHousingHuman rightsLawRoma, Gypsies and TravellersCommunitiesEssexMon, 19 Sep 2011 16:07:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/uk/blog/2011/sep/19/dale-farm-evicitons-liveLewis Whyld/PAPhotograph: Lewis Whyld/PAPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesPeter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesActivists and legal observers stand on barricades next to the main gate at Dale Farm Travellers camp. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty ImagesMary TurnerDennis with his suitcase outside his yard at Dale Farm, 12 September 2011. Photograph: Mary TurnerShiv Malik and Haroon Siddique2011-09-19T16:07:00ZWhy Gypsies make good neighbourshttp://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/23/1
<p>In the 16th century, anyone classed as a &quot;vagabond&quot; faced prison, the forfeiture of their lands and goods or even death. The law was aimed at the Romany Gypsies, who are thought to originate from India.</p><p>In the mid-nineteenth century the Romany Gypsies were joined on the road by Irish people, who came to escape the famine and worked on the canals and railways. New travellers attracted to a nomadic lifestyle and show people bring the number of Gypsies and Travellers in the UK to around 300,000, about a third of whom lives in houses and the rest in caravans.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/23/1">Continue reading...</a>UK newsRoma, Gypsies and TravellersWed, 19 Nov 2008 12:34:59 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2008/oct/23/1Jenny Percival2008-11-19T12:34:59Z